BC health officials are urging parents to get their children vaccinated against the flu as the province grapples with an earlier-than-usual flu season, leading to long waits at major emergency rooms ahead of the holiday season.
Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, said Monday that BC is experiencing a “dramatic increase” in cases of influenza A, a strain that can cause serious illness in children.
“I can’t stress enough the importance of flu immunization right now, this year in particular,” Henry said, speaking to reporters in Vancouver.
“Now there are more kids who haven’t been exposed to the flu in the last two years … so now more are getting sick.”
Henry said the peak of flu season has arrived two weeks earlier than usual.
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Dr. Bonnie Henry says the most at-risk group for children is typically six months to five years.
BC Children’s Hospital has experienced exceptionally long wait times as respiratory illnesses spread, with parents waiting 12 hours or more to see their children. Many children also miss school, Henry said.
The hospital briefly called a code orange at 6:35 a.m. Saturday. The code can be used for mass casualty events, but a statement said it was used Saturday “to increase notification of personnel resources.”
The code was canceled that morning at 7:03am
Sarah Bell, the hospital’s chief operating officer, said the emergency department is seeing high acuity on top of high volume, meaning a large number of patients require care and prolonged care for part of the nursing staff.
Bell said parents should only take children with respiratory illness to the emergency room if they have trouble breathing, adding that children who are under three months old and have a fever and are dehydrated with diarrhea or vomiting they should also go to the emergency room.
“You probably don’t need emergency care if your child has a cough, cold, sore throat, flu, pink eye or earache,” she said.
Henry said the data showed the most common illnesses among BC children in November were influenza A and, to a lesser extent, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections.
As of Monday, he said rates of the common cold and RSV have stabilized while influenza A has become more common.
COVID-19 continues to affect older adults, he said.
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Dr. Bonnie Henry explains why there is no need for a mask mandate in BC
Dr. Bonnie Henry, provincial health officer, says there are tools other than a mask mandate to prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses.
Dix said at the time that the province had made plans to cancel non-urgent surgeries to create space in hospitals for patients, especially children, but had not yet reached that point.
“We have other steps that we don’t want to take, but that would be, for example, delaying non-urgent surgery and then quickly catching up,” Dix told reporters at the legislature.
“We have that step within reach. We haven’t done it yet. We knew it would be a tough season, and it is.”